[analog31]

I have some thoughts about this:

1. The state has to remain in the school business as a back-up for schools that fail, kids who get kicked out, and regions that have insufficient capacity because it's not profitable to run schools there. The public schools need to provide excess capacity so the private ones can operate at capacity and take financial risks. As a result, the state bears the risk.

2. A fleet of SUV's hit the road at 6:00 AM every day to carry kids to the far flung schools that their parents managed to get them into.

3. A shortage of available capacity, turnover in administration and ownership of schools, statistical variance, and opaque metrics make it impossible for parents to actually make an informed choice based on the quality of schools. It will be a crap shoot.

[danans]

> opaque metrics make it impossible for parents to actually make an informed choice based on the quality of schools. It will be a crap shoot.

Nope, people will probably figure out the "best schools" via their private social networks and cloistered communities, and find ways to pull up the ladders behind them.

[notacoward]

...or they'll send their kids to evangelical-Christian "schools" that don't really teach much except counter-factual history and creationism and of course their own particular ideology. The very same people who have totally fabricated a panic about teaching CRT in public schools are more than happy to do far far worse in their own schools. Most of my cousins spent at least some years in such schools. They were worthless money sinks even long ago, and I don't imagine they've gotten any better.

[analog31]

In my view the worst thing is that those schools can be well funded, and easily price secular schools out of the market. When I was living in Texas, it was before we had kids, but I noticed that among private schools, the secular ones were absolutely priced out of our reach.

Religious hospitals and medical clinics can do the same thing in rural areas.

[AtlasBarfed]

I totally agree on #1 and #2.

#3 I think would solve itself. Wow is US News college rankings big business and important. And uppity New Yorkers seem to know quite well what the pecking order is in elite preschools (I'm facepalming that this is true)

Class paranoia is too strong. Something would serve it.

Vouchers would likely involve a lot of fraud, the charter school system already has. A shift to full vouchers would be an expensive cost, one that democrats won't get past republicans.

[analog31]

Indeed, the question is whether emulating the current college system would be considered a success or a failure. I'm thinking more in terms of the middle and working classes, who will simply end up trading one bad school for another one that's also 40 miles away.

Also, it would remain to be seen if K-12 schools stay in business long enough to gain a reputation without becoming franchises of one or two giant nationwide corporations.

[AtlasBarfed]

The for-profit colleges are the worst segment of the already degenerative upper education system. That fact alone indicates we should pause on full-on free market vouchers.

I think the problem is that, at least at the high school level, a school under 1000 kids starts to suffer in terms of services: not enough smart kids, not enough activity participants, not enough special needs for the special teacher. Perhaps "specialty" schools would help a bit ...